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Author Interview with Amanda Thrasher

Get to know Amanda…

Amanda M. Thrasher was inspired to write A Fairy Match in the Mushroom Patch by her mother, whose house and garden were filled with fairies of all kinds. Born in England, Amanda moved to Fort Worth, Texas when she was 14 and still lives there. For more info, visit her website.

Let the conversation begin!

What motivated you to begin pursuing the journey of writing?

I truly am a writer by heart first, and an author second. I have written my entire life; I simply love words. I had absolutely no intentions of being an author, though I had written many manuscripts. To be in print, just to be there, was not a desire of mine.

My mother, who was incredibly ill, made a request of me that I was unable to refuse. She said, “Amanda, you write all of the time and send nothing in. Send in your work, if only for me.” She loved fairies and collected them all over her house and yard. I wrote Mischief in the Mushroom Patch for her, but she never saw it in print. I ran out of time.

I now truly believe the series was meant to be. I receive emails from strangers saying how Pearle’s story has opened the door for conversations around their homes in a lovely way. I had no idea.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

It came via my mentor. I am 44 years old, and have a mentor for the very first time. I consider her a gift. Her words were my ‘light bulb’ moment. First and foremost, she had nothing to gain and secondly I knew exactly what she meant. Her words were simply this: “Switch the switch and narrate the story,” (Anne Dunigan, my local Barnes & Noble CRM, turned mentor and friend).

She had read Mischief in the Mushroom Patch and loved the style in which I wrote. For me, she was the first person that truly believed in me without a single connection and had the professional knowledge to know the difference between good material and not. Her words touched me in such a professional magnitude that she changed the way I write.

Can you imagine words so powerful, they change the way you write? She was a Harcourt Editor and Production Manager with Harcourt for many years, and I wrote A Fairy Match in the Mushroom Patch with her words running through my mind continually.

She actually oversaw that book, and though Mischief in the Mushroom Patch was picked up by Barnes & Noble, Small Press Division, NY, A Fairy Match in the Mushroom Patch was picked up two weeks after release without a single sale. For small press, this was a big deal for me.

I write very descriptively and in a whimsical style. I see things in my mind’s eye before I write them in regards to the scenes I write. My mentor reminds me to narrate what I see and that, without a doubt, is the finest advice I have ever received.